Since 1994 there has been some progress. There is no basis to the notion that education is worse than under apartheid, notes Mr Spaull. Piecing together evidence from various test data, he reckons children today are roughly two years ahead of where they would have been before 1994. Yet in recent years progress is “stalling”, he says. South Africa ranks bottom or near-bottom when countries are ranked by their pupils’ scores in comparable international tests. Nearly 80% of children in grade four (9- or 10-year-olds) cannot read and understand sentences in any language; 61% of pupils a year older cannot add or subtract whole numbers.
Small wonder then that, of the 100 pupils who begin a school year, just 50-60 can be expected to take the end-of-school "matriculation" exam, with 40-50 passing, and only six going on to complete university. All of this has a big impact on a labour market that offers a premium for skilled labour. The jobless rate for people with a high-school certificate (28%) is more than quadruple that for university graduates.
The quality of teaching is a major obstacle to better education. Nearly four in five maths teachers cannot do the sums expected of their 12- or 13-year-old pupils. Many of these teachers were themselves educated under apartheid. Nevertheless the lack of accountability for poor performance has been the responsibility of ANC governments. It is all but impossible to fire a teacher in South Africa. Even when school leaders are suspected of sexual harassment of pupils they are more likely to be moved to a different school than prosecuted.
The problems of South African schools are not for a lack of money. Public spending on education is more than 6% of GDP, a higher share than the average in the OECD club of mostly rich countries. Spending is also higher than in other African countries with better results, such as Kenya. The tolerance of failure, as well as the relatively lavish spending on salaries, is largely a result of the power of teaching unions. The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is one of the largest unions in the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the federation that forms part of the “tripartite alliance” with the ANC, along with the South African Communist Party. SADTU’s political influence means it can get away with stunning levels of mediocrity and corruption.
Its shamefulness was outlined in a report for the government in 2016. Written by John Volmink, it documented widespread fraud and corruption in the school system, such as the sale of jobs for cash or cows. It also found that SADTU was in “de facto control” of the education departments in six of the nine provinces in the country, concluding that “it is not improbable to say that schooling throughout South Africa is run by SADTU”.
Those who can afford to extricate their children from this mess are doing so. Low-cost private schools are increasingly popular. Parents are showing similar preferences for the private over the public as they do in other sectors. In 1997 the number of private security guards and policemen was the same. Today there are three times more private guards than police. No one who can afford private health care relies on the public system.
Yet, given the state of the South African economy, there is a limit to the number of people who can afford to go private. The future of the poorest pupils depends on government policy. Mr Ramaphosa has made some promising suggestions, for example saying that he will embrace an intensive evidence-based reading programme championed by Mr Spaull. That would be a great start. But ultimately a better education system requires the president to take on the unions. Only then will teachers spend more time teaching children than looking out for their own interests.
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Goddamn niggers are fucking pathetic. Wjhen will they learn?
[–] 18981341? ago
It’s funny the article doesn’t mention what the literacy rates among the same black age group was under white rule. If the problem is whitey’s fault due to historical injustices, why does a kid born 15 years after the end of white rule have worse outcomes than a kid who lived during white rule?
HMMMM
[–] 18981361? ago
25* - they are a full generation off the leash and look how they fare
[–] 18988618? ago
No, a 10 year old kid today was born 15 years after.